Ever encounter cafes that serve a “Signature Non-Alcoholic Coffee Drink” like you’d see in The World Barista Championship

For anyone unfamiliar with the World Barista Championships format, I highly recommend watching the video of James Hoffmann's set/routine/performance from 2007. The format back then was an espresso, cappuccino, and finally a "signature coffee drink." The only real rule for the signature drink was that it couldn't be alcoholic.

Nowadays cappuccino has been replaced with 'milk-based coffee drink' yet the 'signature coffee drink' remains. It's where baristas get creative and make something really interesting and unusual with coffee. Something like an espresso tonic is boring and everyone has already done that – yet you don't want to make something that detracts from the coffee itself (eg. a Frappuccino or flavored latte).

I've been to a few hundred 'specialty coffeeshops' while traveling thanks to "European coffee trip," it's a blog by a well-known barista that had "guides" to different cities' coffee scenes – but they launched an app a few years ago. The app is literally just a map of ~4000+ reported/visited specialty coffeeshops around Europe. There is no rankings/reviews. Some of the cafes that make it on there are pretty bad. I go to 2-3 blindly and ask baristas to help me narrow down the list generally.

A lot of the cafes I've been to had great beans from local roasters + talented baristas. I usually get a pour over after asking for bean recommendations. I've tried some incredible coffees and bought a bag here and there.

While in Vilnius, I repeatedly got one rec over and over – an experimental specialty coffee shop.

Two guys(?) created a roaster/coffeeshop called Taste Map. They have great coffee but that's not all that rare in 2024. There are 5 different locations (all in the same city) and the newest location is the experimental location and called "sensory room" – right next to their original flagship location.

It's dedicated to drinks you would see in WBC as that "non-alcoholic signature coffee drink." One drink was a simple flat white using "defrosted milk" – in which milk is frozen and that partly thawed in the fridge (food safety concerns, can't be room temp). This creates an incredibly sweet & very rich milk that has become really popular in competitions. I got some frothed on the side and thought it was cool but nothing crazy

A more unique drink I got was a rhubarb smoke/vape "bubble" placed on top a selected espresso that complimented the flavor of the rhubarb bubble placed on top. Your supposed to drink the espresso at the same time as you drink the "bubble" of flavored vapor/smoke. It's created by this commercial/industrial vape machine thing that you may see at a high end cocktail bars. That was a really interesting experience and the presentation was wild.

They also did some cool takes on cascara drinks and a salted matcha which was also good. In the end, I just loved the format of experimental drinks since that's not something I've seen anywhere else – even in cities known for their innovative coffee scenes. Easily one of the most unique things I've seen in specialty coffee. Every barista I shared this with in Berlin was really interested and couldn't think of anything like that in the city despite a huge coffee scene. I

Specialty coffee is amazing just the way it is, and I love my pour overs. However, I'd kill to find another specialty coffeeshop that offers exotic experimental drinks that still highlight the coffee itself. It's part of the fun in specialty coffee; that people aren't pretentious and love to experiment with roasting/brewing/modification. It keeps things interesting.

Remember James Hoffmann's "sour candy espresso" video? Using a very light roasted coffee to get a very sour almost under-extracted shot and then adding tons of white sugar to get a sour-candy-like flavor? That's what I want and love!

Is there anything like this that you've encountered yourself in a specialty coffeeshop? What was the drink? Would you recommend it? I will add it to my bucket list and go out of my way to visit.

Thank you for reading this long post! Looking forward to reading the responses

tldr – I found a place that did experimental coffee drinks similar to the WBC's "signature coffee drink" component. I've been to hundreds of specialty coffee shops and never seen something like that. Have you ever been to a cafe/coffeeshop that offered any exotic 'signature drink' that still put the high quality coffee front-and-center yet went far beyond your standard 'espresso tonic' type thing yet didn't go too far and basically become a frappuccino-type thing? What was the drink and where was the cafe?